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Re: complex layout tables

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Jan 29, 2014 1:29PM

On 29/01/2014 20:21, <EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:
> Forgive me if I am mistaken, because I have only just started
> coding HTML email, but my understanding is that if you want to
> send HTML email to end-users that will be functional on a wide
> variety of email clients which claim to support HTML, you
> effectively have to use layout tables, because of the variance in
> support among different email clients.
>
> I do understand that I'm conflating "HTML" and "the web" there;
> that's email accessibility I'm discussing, not web accessibility.
> But even so, it does mean that in order to create accessible HTML
> email, you *must* be able to code accessible layout tables.

Many email clients - and most web-based email services - are notoriously
lacking in web standards support (or they strip out/rewrite HTML/CSS so
it can be embedded in the context of the web-based interface). Further,
they may not expose the same amount of information to the OS'
accessibility APIs, meaning that even perfectly accessible markup may
not be announced correctly.

Accessibility and correct use of web standards rely on authors AND user
agents (as well as authoring environments) doing the right thing (the
WCAG/UAAG/ATAG triumvirate, if you will). In this situation, most email
clients don't hold up their end of the bargain, which unfortunately
means that authors will need to use workarounds (such as, indeed, using
tables for layout).

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke
re·dux (adj.): brought back; returned. used postpositively
[latin : re-, re- + dux, leader; see duke.]

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